WordPress sites are not known for being fast websites. They can be clunky and poorly optimised. Here are a few tips to help speed up WordPress websites.
Use a caching plugin
One of the simplest and easiest ways of speeding up your WordPress website is to install a caching plugin. These plugins will help speed up your site by storing copies of pages as static files so they can be served to your users quicker.
If your hosting provider recommends a specific caching plugin then it’s usually best to go with their recommendation. If they don’t mention one then W3 Total Cache is a great one to try first. It’s free and super easy to set up.
Reduce image sizes
Huge images can severely slow down your website. You can use Smush to shrink these images or use a photo editing app to resize them to the correct size before uploading.
Minify JS and CSS
Most caching plugins have options to minify your CSS and JS. This removes the whitespace in your files and allows them to load quicker.
Disable unused plugins
When building a WordPress website, it’s really easy to get carried away and install far too many plugins that are actually needed. Every once in a while, it’s a great idea to go through your plugin list and disable any that aren’t in use.
You could also go through and find any plugins that are implementing features that can be achieved with other plugins. E.g. if you have Revolution Slider installed but your theme has a slider function built in – you could deactivate Revolution Slider and recreate your slider in the theme’s equivalent.
Configure cron to run manually
Configuring the WordPress cron to run manually will prevent your site from running jobs while users are visiting your site, instead they will be done in the background. This can help speed up server loading times.
We have another article here explaining how to configure this.
Switch to a less bloated theme
Most themes on ThemeForest (or any other WordPress theme marketplace) are usually fairly well designed but do tend to come bundled with large amounts of unnecessary features. Many of these will be in the form of plugins that can be easily disabled whereas others will be built directly into the theme.
If you’re designing a fresh WordPress site that needs to run quick, then it’s usually best to find a decent lightweight theme which only contains basic features. That way, you can use plugins to add the additional functionality you require and you’ll end up with a much more lean website.
Clean up expired transients
Transients are used by themes and plugins to store temporary data. Use this plugin to delete any expired transients that may be slowing down your website.
Switch to a high performance website host
WordPress websites will generally run slower on budget web hosts. Don’t buy cheap web hosting if you need your website to run fast!
